Kidnapped radio journalist released in Baghdad

PRAGUE, Nov 4 (Reuters) A kidnapped Baghdad correspondent for a US-funded radio was released after two weeks in captivity, the station said today.

Jumana Al-Obaidi, 29, went missing while on her way to an interview in Baghdad on October. 22. Her driver was shot and dumped in the street.

Al-Obaidi works for the Arabic-language Radio Free Iraq service of the Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

''All of us at RFE/RL are very relieved Jumana's ordeal is over,'' RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin said in a statement.

The station did not say who the kidnappers were nor if they demanded any ransom.

RFE/RL said Radio Free Iraq has lost two journalists in Iraq this year, Nazar Abd al-Wahid al-Radhi and Khamail Muhsin Khalaf.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says 123 reporters and 41 other people working as support staff for the media have been killed in Iraq since March 2003. Fifty journalists have been kidnapped.

REUTERS NY RK2312